Back supports are widely used to avoid injury by workers whose tasks involve heavy lifting. Employers often require their employees to wear such back supports in order to reduce their own liability and to avoid the expense and waste resulting from worker disability. When used properly, back supports are very effective in preventing back injury, particularly injuries resulting from excessive lordosis, or forward curvature of the spine. However, when used improperly, whether inadvertently or deliberately, the effectiveness of a back support is reduced or eliminated.
A commonly used back support belt includes a relatively wide primary belt having one or more rigid lumbar supports and a secondary band. The back provides increased support for back and abdominal muscles, and helps prevent excessive curvature of the spine. The belt often has VELCRO fasterners as a coupling and adjustment means. It may also be provided with shoulder straps attached to the belt to keep the support from slipping downwardly where it is less effective. One such belt is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,920,008 issued on Nov. 18, 1975 to Lehman.
It is very important to the effectiveness of the back support belt that it be worn in the proper location and that the tension of the belt be properly adjusted to provide adequate support for the abdominal and back muscles. If the support is not properly adjusted, it is less effective or completely ineffective in protecting the wearer from injury. If the employer has provided his/her employees with a back support belt and it is not worn properly, then he receives none of the benefits associated with the belt, such as decreased injury related losses. For this reason, employers have an interest in insuring that the back support belts are properly worn by their employees.
Most workers which are required to wear back support belts lack training in the proper use of the belt, or purposefully misuse the belt by wearing the belt loosely for comfort. Further, there is no convenient way for a supervisor to determine whether the employees under his or her direction are properly using the belt so as to obtain its full benefits. There is presently a need for both employees and supervisors to determine whether a back support belt is being worn with the proper tension or being worn loosely so as to be less than ideally effective.